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Loading ...Philippines ends ban on gays in military
03.03.2009 2:30pm EST
(Manila) The Philippines has become the second country in a week to officially end the ban on gays serving in the military.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines said that the decision shows the military has a zero tolerance for discrimination among its ranks. But it also warned that despite allowing gays to serve openly, overt homosexual behavior will still not be tolerated.“Once inside the organization, they have to live by a code of ethics and they have to observe decorum if they want to remain as members of the Armed Forces,” military spokesperson Ernesto Torres told The Manila Times.
To mark the change the military this week began a recruiting drive in the LGBT community.
On Monday, Argentina announced that it had abandoned the gay ban, part of a sweeping military reform act that included the way members of the armed forces are put on trial.
The issue of gays serving opening in the military has roiled the US armed services.
On Monday, legislation to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was filed in the House of Representatives.
While previous attempts to repeal the law were bogged down when Republicans controlled Congress, there is renewed hope the measure will pass the Democratically-controlled Congress.
President Barack Obama has said that he supports repeal of the ban.
While this is great news for areas such as the Philippines, I HIGHLY doubt that the U.S. will follow suit. If you haven’t noticed yet, President Obama, no matter how great his spoken intentions may be, doesn’t seem to keen on following through with any of his promises to the LGBT community. It will be interesting to see if and/or when he reacts.
Two more and counting. How is it that nations that U.S. considers 2nd and 3rd world can be so progressive and yet the mighty U.S. continues to cower at the thought of gays in the Military serving openly.
I have family in the military here in Canada, three now serving in Afghanistan, one is gay like myself. He has absolutely no problems, in fact, many in his company consider him a good luck charm, ah those lucky charms…..but I digress.
Truthfully, I wonder….how do rethuglicans and the christonuts on the right reconcile their cowardice at not sending their own children into the fray (Mr. Romney, Mr. Rumsfeld et al, are you listening?) yet would dishonour, disrespect and disparage those very brave and patriotic men and women of the gay community who clearly have more pride, courage and strength to serve and all the more so because they know at the same time, many of their own countries’ leadership hate them. It boggles the mind.
I can only hope that DADT becomes a bad memory some day soon, but until then, vigilance and activism must be the order of the day.
DAMN IT – THE WORLDS LEADER IN DEMOCRACY AND CIVIL RIGHTS FOR COUNTRIES AROUND THE WORLD GETS BEATEN AGAIN BY SMALLER COUNTRIES THAT BAN DISCRIMINATION IN THEIRS. HOW EMBARRASSING.
Oh yes! Let’s all celebrate our lowering of our standards to kill, maim and slaughter like brainless heteros! LMFAO!!
Jon in Canada Said: “….how do rethuglicans and the christonuts on the right reconcile their cowardice at not sending their own children into the fray (Mr. Romney, Mr. Rumsfeld et al, are you listening?) yet would dishonour, disrespect and disparage those very brave and patriotic men and women of the gay community who clearly have more pride, courage and strength to serve and all the more so because they know at the same time, many of their own countries’ leadership hate them.”
That pretty much sums it up. Well said.
this is history in the making now you will see change all over the world this is my testimony of rainbow colored people living and learning and serving together that has always been a dream of mine my beatiful people look how far we done came this what makes me proud to see people making an effort to work together in these trying times god bless the people of the phillippines for turning the page in history and not accepting discrimination!
“I HIGHLY doubt that the U.S. will follow suit… President Obama… doesn’t seem to keen on following through with any of his promises to the LGBT community.”
Obama is a smart guy. He knows how polarizing LGBT issues are. If legislation is passed to end DADT, I have no doubt he will quietly sign it into law. I would love to hear a grand speech from Obama praising the undoing of a great injustice with the removal of DADT, but lets face it, it would hurt him in the polls.
I served in the Infantry for ten years, led a rifle squad in the 101st Airborne for part of that. Once I reached the realization that I’d have to accept my homosexuality I felt that serving honorably under the current rules was impossible.
If allowed to serve openly I would have probably retired after doing twenty years or possibly more since my twenty would have been up about the same time as “Mission Accomplished!”
Shawn,
If it weren’t for “brainless heteros” not only you wouldn’t be born and here via no effort on your part thanks to the sperm and egg of others (other than by cell division) to dump on heteros, (since to date that is still currently how the most of our favorite GLBT personalities and the gorgeous gay boys and gorgeous gay girls and the rest of us fabulous if not gorgeous GLBTs got here) and maybe the military of some hostile foreign land would be on your doorstep.
every country in the world unfortunately has to be ready to defend itself, its citizenry and its territorial integrity from the hostile intentions of other countries. Defense is not sweetness and light, not peaches and cream. It is a very unpleasant and nasty task, and somebody has got to do it, so that those like myself who is too old for military duty and those like you who don’t want to don’t have to.
9/11 is an illustration of what can happen to any land in the world and every land needs to ready to protect itself.
As for one good example even though in the ancient world, If it weren’t for the courage and strategic planning of the ancient Greek kingdom of Sparta and other lands of common language and culture in ancient Greece the mighty and vast armies of the Persian conqueror Xerxes shooting thousands of arrows skyward so they would travel farther and come raining down on the samller Spartan army, Xerxes would have prevailed. He tried cunning, guile and intimidation to reign in the Spartan king and when that failed, he sent his armies to capture Greece. The Spartans even though they had fewer men, figured a way to stop the armies of Xerxes and the Persians in the end did not permanently conquer the ancient Greeks.
So, it is with every land in the world.
Some gay people consider it an honor to be able to be part of something to keep their homeland safe, secure and freer.
There are lands in the world where gay people are treated by their governments and societies with more respect than here in the USA. And in those lands, some of the gay people who live there feel honored to stand ready to help protect their country if need be.
Many around the world honor the bravery and sacrifice of those gay and straight protectors of their own lands.
The Phillipines and other countries will be stronger nations for engaging the support of straight and gay alike in its land for its national defense.
The policy against homosexuals serving also applies to the National Guard and the Coast Guard. All of the Armed Forces of the government have banned homosexuals from serving.
Thank goodness I only saw this story today. I would have been worried sick the whole of yesterday wondering what the end of the world would be like at 11:59:59PM.
As for the ban on “overt homosexual behaviour”, I do not understand why the Philippines military does not want their soldiers to comb their hair.
Oooppppss!!! this is not verified. We’ve been getting mixed signals from the Armed Forces of the Philippines. One official would say that the military is open for lesbians and gays, as long as they don’t come out or cross-dress, then another would say that the military doesn’t accept LGBTs at all. There is no specific policy on this, and what’s disturbing is that the military has no specific non-discrimination policy for LGBTs. In several congressional hearings, in fact, military officials have actually said that the “unofficial” policy is that LGBTs are not accepted.
I think the armed Forces of the philippines has made a good decision in allowing the gays to be a part of the troup. people don’t know the capabilities and the abilities of the gays.. You may not know.. some gays are braver than those of he straight guys lor men out there…
so why not, just support that gays and we don’t know thats omeday a general of the armed forces of the philippines is a proud GAY!
that would be all..
thank you..